Fan memories - March 4th, 1977, Sydney Showground
Hello All
At first the thought of contributing something for the 25th Anniversary of the Australian tour seemed a large task. I did attend the Friday night concert in Sydney and the memory and affect of it stayed with me for many, many years. However the thought of putting down my own recollections seems difficult as I was only six years old at the time. When I think about what I remember and experienced and seperate it from all other images and ABBA The Movie, it seemed I would have to dig very hard to find things. But I have done some thinking and as best I can, here are snippets of what I remember.
As mentioned I went to the Friday night concert, on March 4, if I'm not mistaken.I remember thinking at the time that the previous nights concert had been cancelled and was hoping that our concert wouldn't be. I attended the concert with my mother, (one of the few things I remember doing with her as she died just a few years later) my cousin, Christine, who was one year younger than me, (and who would always be Agnetha to my Frida, when we played Abba at home), and other members of my family who were scattered around the showground in different seats. My mother, cousin and myself were seated together.
As the time of commencement was getting closer, I remember the excited chants of "We want Abba. We want Abba" and feeling amazed and excited that I was surrounded by so many other people who loved Abba as well. Even then, in 1977 at age six, I felt stigmatised for loving Abba. So the crowd rapture felt fantastic for that reason as well. I wasn't alone. The stadium was full of people who felt the same way. I remember people holding up posters and signs and for some reason an image that sticks in my mind is somebody holding a huge( or what would have seemed huge, to me, aged 6) poster stuck to a large pole or stick. It was the picture from the front cover of the Australian version of The Best Of Abba. The one with Frida seated in a regal pose.
As for the actual concert itself, what I do remember is the VOLUME. Maybe it was because we were kids, but any member of my family when asked in later years would always say what they remembered of the concert was how loud it was. I remember Tiger at the begining. I remember the introduction of SOS. I do also remember the encore of Dancing Queen. But that's it as far as specific memories of the actual concert go. I can also remember at the end as we were walking out that it did start to rain, but only briefly and I remember feeling so lucky that our concert wasn't ruined by the rain.
The excitement of the concert stayed with me( helped a little by the release of ABBA The Movie) and my fanatasism of Abba never dimmed while the group was still going, even when it became clear that there would never be another Australian tour.
The significance of it came back to me in March 1987, in the midst of my dull, stagnate teens, when I remembered it on it's tenth anniversary. It was at that time, that I started playing Abba again after a few years of silence. At that time I thought I was the only person who did care about the anniversary until later that year when the Ten Anniversary video was released. The video really had nothing to do with the tour but I was just ecstatic that it had been acknowledged. The following January I came across a copy of ABBA The Movie which I bought and so the excitement and hysteria of the tour were at last mine to keep.
Of course by the time of twentieth annivesary, Abba had well and truly been revived. I was able to celebrate it this time by attending the ABBA - The 20 Year Celebration. It felt good to be sharing that excitement with people for whom the event meant as much as it did for me.
One last note about the concert. Another cousin of mine, much older than me, also attended the concert. I don't recall him at the same concert I was at but he could well have been. This cousin was the sought of person who we'd expect to have hated Abba. A baby boomer, heterosexaul male who was a DJ and heavily involved with music at the time. He was never ashamed(even during the 80s) to say that the Abba concert was in his top five concerts, he'd ever attended. As you can imagine, I was always pleased to hear that.
Although I was very young I am so grateful that I did get to see Abba live, as it turned out to be a true once in a lifetime opportunity.
Gerard Maree
Sydney, Australia
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March 4 back in 1977 was a Friday, and I seem to remember spending most
of the day before the evening concert listening to the radio reports on
both the weather and the previous nights ABBA concert. There was also
some speculation about rain occurring again again in theevening; which
at the time, was a bit unnerving. I also for some reason remember playing
the Happy Hawaii single quite often throughout the day before I left for
the concert. I made sure I got out to the showground extra early; and
this paid off,because I managed to get in the third row left side of the
stage. One of my 2 schoolfriends at the time that went with me bought
along a pair of binoculars - having learned from the previous nights experience
in the distant grandstand. I too also remember thinking that the concert
was very loud when it began - but the sound was 100% better than the previous
night; and there was no rain to contend with this time either. We all
thought Frida was looking right at us during Waterloo - I suppose she
thought it a bit odd people in the 3rd row were taking turns looking at
her with binoculars ! The format of the concert as I recall, pretty much
ran the same format as the previous night. Perhaps it was also more enjoyable
because we knew not to expect ABBA's studio sound on stage; which we had
been anticipating the previous night.
Harold Hanlon
Sydney, Australia
Posted on ABBAMAIL, March 4th, 2002
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